Sweet and Sour Spam

Okay, let's just get this right out into the open - I am fully aware that some people don't like Spam. Well, I and my family happen to enjoy it so we do buy and use it on occasion. Deal with it. :-)

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a couple days. Call it a weird pregnancy craving or whatever, but I really wanted to try making a Hawaiian Haystack-like dish using Spam instead of chicken gravy, and cooking the Spam in a sweet and sour sauce. So today I did that for lunch. And we really liked it!

The sauce came from a recipe for something called Sweet-Sour Fish Bake. That actually sounds really gross to me, but the sauce itself is a fantastic basic sweet and sour sauce that can be used for a variety of things - s&s chicken, s&s pork, and this s&s Spam!


Sweet and Sour Spam
1 can Spam
1 can pineapple chunks, drained with juice reserved
3 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
Red and yellow food coloring, optional (This wasn't in the original recipe, but Jeff liked colorful food; he added 3 drops red and 1 drop yellow)
2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. cold water

Dice Spam into bite-sized chunks. Saute in a small amount of oil until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup. Heat pineapple juice, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and garlic powder to boiling in same pan that you cooked Spam in. Mix cornstarch and water; stir into sauce. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in pineapple chunks and Spam.


We served this kind of like Hawaiian Haystacks, by layering rice, the sweet and sour Spam, tomatoes, celery, peas, and cheese. Other additions that would have been nice if we had them on hand would include: bell peppers, chow mein noodles, olives, etc. The cheese is in chunks instead of shredded because it's fresh mozzarella - it was a manager's special, marked down to $1.50 per pound. Score!